


tanz mit mir

by pacificnewt



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: M/M, hermann is so hopelessly gay, shatterdome closing party, uprising don’t interact
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-29 23:10:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17817329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pacificnewt/pseuds/pacificnewt
Summary: All good things come to an end, or so Hermann supposes.





	tanz mit mir

**Author's Note:**

> i live for them that’s all i have to say

The lab was not quiet.

It should have been, but the ruckus from outside the door and even from outside was too great to ignore. The loud music was enough to give Hermann Gottlieb a headache.

Hermann’s head rest against one of the many desks in the room, arms sprawled over sheets among sheets of paper with feverishly written equations and theorems covering nearly every inch of them. Hermann’s vision was blurred, his hands tingling, and his head throbbing. He was half-drunk and exhausted.

Hermann lifted his head to peer across the lab. His gaze fell upon his partner’s work, studying the remains of a young kaiju on display on his work table. Hermann noticed entrails that spilled onto the floor and wrinkled his nose. Distasteful.

As revolting as it was, Hermann preferred it to the inevitable. The jaeger programs were to be shut down in a matter of days. And while the rest of the PPDC employees were elsewhere in the facility celebrating the sealing of the breach, one of the K-Science branch’s most valued workers sat with his heartache alone and away from any festivities. Hermann looked longingly back at the side of the lab past the haphazardly placed piece of tape on the ground that separated the work spaces. Knowing that the comfortable mess would be gone shortly was a difficult thing to cope with.

As soon as Hermann let his head drop back to the table, it snapped back up. The door had opened. “Herms? You in here?”

Hermann grunted in response. Newt’s voice floated into the room and his body followed. His hair was a mess, his shirt untucked, his tie skewed. He had a cup of something in hand that Hermann assumed to be alcohol. “What’re you doing alone in here, bud?”

“Being responsible,” Hermann said. He rubbed his eyes did his best to pass as being completely sober. “We have a time limit to pack these things, you know. There’s no use in delaying it.”

“Hermann,” Newt laughed, “we’ve worked our asses off night and day since the kaiju came through and now it’s over. We finally have some time to take a load off and you’re still working?”

Hermann sighed and broke away from their eye contact. It wasn’t a conversation he was in the mood to have. “I am just simply taking care of what I must so I do not have to later. I am glad you’re enjoying yourself, Newton, but you can kindly leave me out of it.”

Newt flopped in a seat near him and downed a sip of whatever mess he was drinking. He winced, and set the cup on the ground. “Why aren’t you partying with the rest of us?”

“I see nothing about being unemployed that calls for a celebration.” He sounded bitter, perhaps more so than he intended to.

Newt looked at Hermann, who looked back down at the papers scrawled with numbers. “You never taught yourself how to relax, did you?”

Hermann bit at his lip. “I have never had any need for it. I always find something to busy myself with.”

Newt’s gaze softened. “Hermann, good God, you gotta take breaks! I get it’s good to be dedicated and all that, but I think you’d be a lot happier with spending some time with your colleagues out there. I’ve been looking for you all night.”

Hermann remained unmoving. “Thank you for the offer. I prefer to stay here.” He stood and leaned over the desk in place of grabbing his cane and gathered some of the stray pens and blueprints to nestle them into a box on the ground. Newt watched him in silence, then slowly stood and approached him from behind to look over his shoulder.

Hermann didn’t notice and kept clearing some of the clutter. He tried to pretend Newt wasn’t even there at all, thinking it would make the situation easier on him. Newt pushed aside a piece of paper and Hermann’s head whipped to see his hand grab at an image underneath it.

“Newton, put that down!”

Newt stared in disbelief. He rubbed one of his eyes underneath his glasses and could have sworn he might have cried. In Newt’s hand, he held a picture of himself that was hidden in the mess on Hermann’s desk. “Hermann—“

Hermann yelped and snatched it out of his hand, hiding it behind his back with a growing blush of embarrassment. Fantastic. “For reference,” he said. “That’s all.”

Newt put his hands on his hips. “You’re gonna miss me.”

Hermann looked nearly offended. “Wh—“

“That’s why you’re in here, isn’t it? Staring at my mess and moping around about the closing?”

Hermann’s hands started to shake. “Nein.”

“Hermann, dude, I’m gonna miss you too. So much. But don’t let that get in the way of trying to be happy about all this ending, okay? It’s not like we’ll never see each other.” Newt grabbed at Hermann’s wrist. “C’mon, let’s have some fun while the night is young!” He turned to leave, but Hermann was a statue in place. Newt turned and was met with a wave of emotion that nearly toppled him.

Since their drift, the two of them found it easier to communicate. They could pick up on what the other meant when something didn’t quite come out right, they knew when they needed space, and they could determine how the other was feeling on a basic level. Newt looked into Hermann’s eyes and felt a pang in his chest, along with a burning feeling where they made skin-to-skin contact. He knew what Hermann felt. He felt the same. Hermann grabbed Newt’s face and kissed him on the mouth.

Newt kissed him back immediately, arms embracing him as though he’d been waiting for this moment all his life. The squeeze almost caught Hermann off guard, but he put his hands on Newt’s hips and kissed like his wellbeing depended on it. Newt eventually broke away to breathe and rested his forehead against Hermann’s.

“Why did you wait all this time to do that?”

“I felt now was appropriate,” Hermann slurred. 

Newt grinned and cocked an eyebrow. “Maybe you haven’t been as depressed as I thought. You drinkin’, Herms?”

Hermann scowled and buried his face in Newt’s chest. “I suppose it’s caught up with me.”

Amused, Newt wrapped his arms back around the man and rocked slowly side to side. He rubbed Hermann’s back slowly, fingers creeping upward to card through the godawful hair Newt loved to complain about. The music outside quieted not in volume, but in tone. An indiscernable slow song came on, and Newt could have sworn he heard Tendo whooping outside the lab door. He laughed quietly and put his hands on Hermann’s hips, and guided Hermann’s hands to his shoulders.

“You too out of it to grant me this dance?”

“Nonsense, schatz,” Hermann stumbled. “Tanz mit mir.”

Newt started them off, moving slow enough so Hermann could follow in his slightly impaired state. Newt held Hermann close to his chest, relishing in the deep hums from his mouth. He’d only seen Hermann intoxicated a small number of times, but he noticed things: his voice went deeper, his accent became thicker, and he found it easier to converse in his native German tongue. Newt was gentle, mindful of both Hermann’s leg and his closed eyes. He had ended up stepping on Newt’s toes a number of times, but neither one minded. 

Newt picked up on the chorus and dipped his head to whisper-sing the lyrics by Hermann’s ear. With what glimpse he got of the physicist’s face, he could tell he was a bit rosy. Newt grinned from ear to ear and kissed Hermann’s head. “This is hardly an end to anything, a’ight?”

“Mm.” Hermann didn’t entirely register the gesture, and Newt concluded he’d fill him in when the sun rose and he’d slept off his hangover. Newt looked around at what was left of their lab and he closed his eyes, then rested his chin on top of Hermann.

“Ich liebe dich,” Hermann said.

Newt chuckled. “I like your dick too, buddy.”


End file.
